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Brad Nelson teaches Loveland students "Yes, you can" (video)

That's one of the reasons Nelson earn Adapted PE Teacher of the Year

By Jessica Maher Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
12/07/2012 03:44:17 PM MST

Brad Nelson, adaptive PE teacher for the Thompson School District,, passes a basketball to Logan Sweezey, 13, during class Wednesday at Conrad Ball Middle School in Loveland. Nelson was honored with the Colorado Adaptive PE Teacher of the Year award.
(
Jenny Sparks
)

During a Wednesday game of basketball in Conrad Ball Middle School's adaptive physical education class, some students are breaking the rules. Not the travelling rule or the dribbling rule -- those are unimportant -- but the one that teacher Brad Nelson lobbies hard against everyday.

"I can't," 12-year-old Gabe Batchelor says when Nelson, known as "Coach" to the kids, encourages him to pass the ball.

"Yes you can, yes you can," Coach tells him.

Saying "I can't" is the only thing that students in the Thompson School District's adaptive PE classes -- some in wheelchairs, some with serious behavior issues, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy -- cannot do.

"All I do is ask them to do the best they can," Nelson said. "It's not that they can't do it."

Nelson has been named the Adapted PE Teacher of the Year by COAHPERD -- the Colorado Association for Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Superintendent Stan Scheer, who recently sat in on one of Nelson's classes, said it's easy to see why he was chosen.

"He does it with not only a sense of purpose but incredible sensitivity to those kids and making sure they really love being there," Scheer said. "He's obviously motivated in terms of those student's needs and unless you've seen it, you might not appreciate it."

Nelson commutes between 15 elementary, middle and high schools every week to teach gym class. The sizes of the classes vary and so does the curriculum. Class plans can fly out the window depending on behavioral changes, but Nelson said he loves that there's no such thing as a typical day.

"When I was there, he had to adjust to the needs of the students," Scheer said. "I watched him shift gears from an activity that he thought he was going to do to an activity that he ended up doing."

Nelson's classes lay a foundation of motor skills -- hopping, skipping, jumping, balance -- things come easily to most kids. He goes back to the basics with games, too. In baseball, for example, it's as simple as teaching the students to run the bases.

"Really what it is, is that if the kid can't be effective in the general PE class, I can help them out," Nelson said. "I love my job. I get to work with these kids for years and see them progress."

Sixteen-year-old Kaylee Noble is among those students that Nelson has worked with through the grades, starting in elementary school. Kaylee's mother, Jan Noble, calls him "our hero of adaptive PE."

"Brad has always gone above and beyond what's required because he has such a heart for these kids," Noble said. "Kaylee has complex issues and challenging behaviors and there are not a lot of people willing to take that chance. He always did."

Nelson has been the hero of adaptive PE at Thompson School District for 11 years now. As a graduate student at University of Northern Colorado, Nelson thought he would end up as a general PE teacher, but volunteer work led him to special needs children.

"This job opened up and it was a perfect fit," Nelson said. "I've always had a place in my heart for helping kids."

That takes him beyond the classroom, too. Every year, he raises money to take his students on a variety of field trips. Next week, they'll go bowling at Sweetheart Lanes in Loveland and Nelson is currently raising money to take his students skiing in Winter Park at the National Sports Center for the Disabled.

"When I walk in a school in the fall after the summer, the first thing I hear is 'hey coach, when are we going skiing this year,'" he said, grinning.

Years back, the district stopped paying for the trips. Funding has continued to diminish to the point that the entirety of the ski trips, including transportation, has been left up to Nelson. He refuses to ask families of the students to support the trips, so instead he raises the money himself.

Begs, in some years, he jokes.

"Things are tight everywhere but I've always been able to do it," he said.

Last year, full scholarships for ski trips were given to all 37 students who participated. His goal this year is to raise $4,900 to pay for lift tickets, transportation and supplies for 45 kids.

It's all worth it, Nelson said, when you see a wheelchair-bound child fitted into a ski sled for the first time, whirling down the slopes wearing goggles and a glowing smile.

"It's the best thing I do," he said. "We take it for granted that we can just go skiing. To see these kids doing something like that ... it's out of this world."

Noble's daughter Kaylee often speaks about the field trips with Coach, not just skiing but the hiking trips, the fishing trips, the bowling outings. It's important that the trips continue to be supported by the community, Noble said.

"For him to continue in spite of a lot of setbacks with the district, it shows he's a great advocate and he believes in what he's doing," she said.

Donations to Nelson's field trip program, called Adapted Recreation Activities, can be made out to the Thompson Education Foundation at 800 S. Taft Ave. Checks should be written to the Thompson Education Foundation, with APE/ARO noted in the comment line for the 501 (c) (3) Nelson created.

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